US national debt

As Netflix has released more original titles, the national debt has grown, a correlation of 0.976 that connects content production to fiscal production with the spending confidence of two entities that both believe in growth through borrowing. Netflix borrowed billions to fund content, the US government borrowed trillions to fund everything else, and both numbers climbed with the deficit-financed confidence of institutions that have decided debt is a feature, not a bug.

Netflix originals grew from about 10 titles in 2013 to over 500 per year by 2022. National debt grew from about 17 trillion to over 31 trillion. Both are ten-year growth curves powered by different forms of borrowing: Netflix used debt to fund its content library, the US government used debt to fund its operations. The shared variable is the same low-interest-rate environment that made borrowing cheap for both entities during the same decade.

Ten years of Netflix originals and national debt is a correlation between two borrowers who both discovered that cheap debt enables exponential growth. The content library expanded on credit, the government operated on credit, and both curves climbed until interest rates made the strategy more expensive. The series is produced. The debt is serviced. The strategy is questioned.